The director of the Scottish Catholic Education Service (SCES), Michael McGrath, has welcomed a new initiative that enables more Catholic university students to study for a teaching certificate in religious education at their chosen institution.
The new pilot scheme – which has funding for one year – will allow trainee Catholic teachers in Scotland to obtain certificates through the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde. At present, the Catholic Teachers’ Certificate (CTC) in Religious Education is only available at the University of Glasgow, where it is administered by the St Andrew’s Foundation.
Mr McGrath, who conceded that teacher recruitment in Scotland was difficult “across the board” but that the shortage of properly certificated Catholic teachers was “chronic”, said the extension of the service would allow students to study for the CTC at or close to their chosen university, removing the need for distance learning programmes.
Dr Leonardo Franchi, head of the St Andrew’s Foundation, told The Tablet, that the initiative had been discussed two years ago, and a proposal put to the Scottish government prior to the Scottish elections. “We wanted to know if an extension of the provision was both possible and feasible: the answer seemed to be yes and yes. The Scottish Government appeared to be open to a trial extension and we have been given funding for one year at the moment to offer the Certificate through Edinburgh and Strathclyde, though it remains the case that Glasgow is providing the materials”.
A Holyrood spokesman said the Government and SCES were collaborating on widening access to the CTC.
Loading ...
